Session 156: Claws - The Revenge (5/1/22)

Verget the 4th.

The night before setting off for the smugglers' caves with Mayor Bauerkroft, the PCs decide they're going to do something with the animated golem arm they found in the Dwarf Lords' Rest. They get Indrid quite drunk, while Gary has healing at the ready, and decide to saw off the halfling swashbuckler's arm, much to the chagrin of the innkeeper. The process is grueling, and despite their preparations, blood gets all over their rented room, before finally they get some rest. During the amputation, the PCs think they notice someone is by the window.

Verget the 5th.

After the traumatic ordeal the night before, the PCs awaken for some breakfast at the Steady Oar, and then head out to meet Blake, who it turns out is already waiting for them. Indrid notices that when he focuses, the arm seems to pay attention to his sword swings and other moments, but when it is idle it tends to still have a mind of its own. He will have to master its use. The Mayor leads the trio to some lakeside caves a few miles west of Tarndim, and they find that the place has several tracks which have been used, but enough of them that they are individually hard to discern. The entrance they use is heavily trapped with shards of sharp wood, hidden broken glass beneath the sand on the floor, and bucket swings, but the group manages to navigate through it.

They find a massive, flooded cavern and Gary changes shape to swim about and explore, but the party is ambushed by a trio of massive freshwater crustaceans! The slippery floors they are standing on make the fight much more difficult than it would be otherwise, and Gary wild shapes into a giant crab to match up with the crayfish, but he is sadly taken to pieces by several of their brutal attacks. Indrid, Finian and Blake finish the fight, avenging the fallen druid, and then claim his remains. After a brief mourning, and a vow to have the lost one returned beyond death, they explore deeper into the caverns, finding a smugglers' niche which looks as if its been recently used.



There are several maps scribed onto the rocks, as well as ledgers of transactions between Harley Hosspotch and a gang of his smugglers', apparently working as a splinter group of the Hosspotch crime family and committing acts repulsive to even Grandfather. Finian finds traces of one of his siblings' clothing, and they note a bird marked on one of the crude maps near where the Vernal Wall and the Pinewater River meet north of Cedarway. They find an exit out onto the Skunk Ridge above, but turn back to finish exploring the caverns while they are still here.



Where the water enters the cave, they find some shallow waterfalls in which glint coins and other baubles, almost a trail which continues up the top and back through the stream. A splintering tunnel reeks of raw death, and after traveling down it they find corpses of many lake and shore creatures, as well as some humanoids...and lairing near the remains, a pair of hideous lake trolls!

PCs: Finian Redfoot, Gary Greasewax, Indrid Hosspotch